Take my friend John.* John came to the University of South Carolina freshly out of the closet and ready to embrace his sexuality. This leaves nervous gay freshmen, who maybe just escaped a high school ridden with misogynistic bullies, in quite the mental predicament. While gender-neutral housing is the new frontier-some colleges already have residence halls where both a male and female can occupy one room-most institutions abide by the “same-sex dorm room” staple. And for us gays, the entire ordeal can be even more awkward sauce if we’re assigned to live with a close-minded, homophobic straight boy.
One of the most frightening parts of college-for anyone-is the random roommate experience. * Names have been changed to protect the privacy of my friends…and me.